making_links Archives - Successful Blog

Link Anchor Text: SEO and Relationships

June 11, 2007 by Liz

Reach Out with Respect

When we code a link, anchor text is that part people click to get where the link goes. Well-written anchor text is one more way that people and spiders know why you made the link — the relevance between your post and where you are sending them. Link anchor text is another way to reach out with respect to bloggers who offer information we value.

Here’s an example of anchor text in link as code and as the reader sees.

This code:

<a href=“http://[URL goes here]”>Link Anchor Text</a >

would look like this to readers:

Link Anchor Text

Sometimes you’ll see the name of the blog or a post as anchor text. Sometimes you’ll words such as here or click here instead. The first is relevant and SEO friendly. It builds connections and relationships. The second does not. Who wants to be referred to as “click here”?

Relationships and SEO

Strong, descriptive anchor text is a sign that we know how spiders travel links and that we care about people read and write blogs.

Search engines pay attention to what you write in your anchor text. They notice all of the text around a link — key words and descriptions. Spiders use anchor text to determine relevance and authority as they follow links from post to post. Linking with keyword-rich anchor text forms strong links to posts both within your blog and with blogs you respect.

Think about relationships. Links connect blogs and connect the bloggers who write them. Great anchor text, descriptive of what the link is leading to, offers an opportunity to feature those relationships. Spiders read and match up relevant key words in the linking posts. Search engines highlight your anchor text when they index the reference. The blogger you link to sees your descriptive text as how you named his or her blog or blog post.

It only takes a few seconds — a few words inside a link . . . to make a difference in relevance and SEO, to let readers know where you suggest they go next, and to offer the blogger at the other end a few words of respect. That’s a great way to use links to reach out.

Go for the relationship at the same time that you’re following great SEO practices.

Anchor me.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
If you’d like Liz’s help with your business, click on the Work with Liz!! page in the sidebar.

How to Code Links for Sidebars and Posts

June 29, 2006 by Liz

How to Code Links

One of the first things I encountered as a new blogger that seemed to perplex me was writing the code to build my own links. Once you know how, it seems easy.

I remember too well a major directory I wanted to be in that required you take a button and link it back to their blog. They didn’t provide the code only .jpgs of buttons. I wrote support for help and a guy with geeky attitude basically said, Figure it out for yourself.

Even if you already know how to code links, having this post that lays it out plainly is a handy thing because you’re bound to have a new blogger friend ask you for help on this in the next few weeks.

To keep a blog healthy and sleek, build links the old-fashioned way. It’s really not hard once someone shows you how.Turn the page for explicit examples. [Read more…]

Blog Basics 2: How to Code Links

December 14, 2005 by Liz

I found myself this week, teaching someone how to build links for the fifth time in so many months. . . . Yeah, sometimes I’m a little slow at realizing what I should be writing about.

Even if you’re a pro who already knows how to code links, you’re going to meet someone who doesn’t know. Showing someone how can be the start of a relationship. This document explains the how to of building links.

Before I begin, many people know that the quick-and-easy way to make external sidebar links is to use Blogrolling. Fewer know that the javascript of Blogrolling causes a blog to load more slowly or that search engine spiders tend to trip on it.

The healthy blog uses external linking built by hand. It takes longer to build links individually, but it’s not hard. It’s simple formula, fill-in-the-blank. Here’s the code.

The Code

Note the space after the first a. Note the quotes around the link.

<a href=“http://URL”>Link Anchor Text</a >
Voila! Get the characters where they go and that code shows this.

Link Anchor Text

The Code Explained: The Link Itself

“http://URL”

If you want to link to the blog itself, put the blog’s home page URL.

“https://www.successful-blog.com”

If you want to link to a specific post, code a Permalink, the permanent address of the post.

“https://www.successful-blog.com/1/blog-basics-1-comments-and-comment-policies/”

Some blog software offers a link below each post marked Permalink to take you to a post’s permanent address. In some, you get to the permanent address by clicking the title of the post. In Blogger, go inside comments. Once there, go to the top and click the title of the post.

You know you have the Permalink when the address in your browser’s address bar includes words from the title of the post.

The Code Explained: The Anchor Text

The link anchor text is the name or description you give the link. It’s a good thing not to name the same link with the same words every time. Search engines realize that humans are not consistent. See the anchor text I used to link my blog Letting me be . . . in the side bar of this Successful (and Outstanding) Blog for an example.

The little bit of extra time it takes to hand code links is good. It could be just the nudge we need to consider whether a link we’re planning is quality. The Checklist for Linking to Quality Blogs is a great test for making sure the link you’re about to build will add value and serve your readers.

There I go again talking about readers. In the end everything comes down them.

–ME “Liz” Strauss